Saturday, July 31, 2010

You Can Fool Some of the People

Why do you give your business to some establishments while ignoring others? What is it that attracts us to one supermarket over another? One gas station. One restaurant. Somethings are easy to pinpoint of course. Competitive prices, fine cuisine, word of mouth. Marketing plays a huge part also. Signs, slogans, logos, ads. Seen from space I'm suprised our planet doesn't glow with a neon haze. Can anyone old enough tell me the ingredients of a Big Mac without thinking of the song? Didn't think so. Nike. What do you see in your head? Swoosh? All of these things to try and make us feel part of something. Like we are cared for. Like we matter. Like everything a company does is for us. Of course I'll give my money to someone that makes me feel so loved. Why would they go to such lengths if they didn't really care?

Fool me once.

I had to take part in a training session the other day all about the store's stance on the Employee Free Choice Act. According to the video I had to watch this proposed law is a tool of the Unions to be able to more or less trick people into letting your workplace become unionized. The video stated over and over how the company is not anti-union; it would rather see everyone work as a team with open communications between management and employees. They care more about their employees than any old union ever could; why be tricked into paying union dues when a union can't really promise you anything. Don't trust anyone associated with a union; they'll trick you, take your money, make your job worse, AND eventually force your company to close its doors.

Fool me twice?

Do you know why you get paid vacations at work? Have a forty hour work week? Just about anything you take for granted at your workplace is due to some kind of union activity somewhere in time.

Now I'm not taking sides here. Some companies are great to work for. Some unions have done a lot of work for the average Joe. What I am getting to though is to be mindful of who you do business with. 'Cause it's all about the money. All the marketing strategies. All the warm fuzzies some faceless corporation wants you to feel. Everything. All of it. Even down to what the weekend night guy wears. Anything on the surface to ensure you will come back and spend more money is no coincidence.

But how much of that surface stuff really matters? Why do you walk away from some transactions satisfied and not so much from others? Isn't it all down to human interaction? Isn't the rapport you have with the waitress, the salesman, the meat cutter, the weekend night guy? I know I always like to think that some of the people I see all the time come back because they know their human contact won't be horrible at least. So consider that next time someone serves you in a store. Is it the public face of the company you are buying or is the human contact you appreciate?